Kenyan Electoral Body Says Existing Staff to Organize New Vote

Kenya’s electoral body said officials who oversaw last month’s annulled presidential vote should stay in place to organize the planned rerun, a move that opposition candidate Raila Odinga has said could lead him to boycott the election.

Due to “serious time constraints,” the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission should work to deliver a second vote that’s “aligned with the existing organizational structure,” the IEBC said on its Twitter account on Monday. The body will seek to improve the way it arranges votes, it said.

The move is likely to be opposed by Odinga’s five-party alliance, which has demanded the electoral commission be overhauled and said it wants guarantees on fairness before it agrees to participate in the Oct. 17 rerun. The first election -- won by President Uhuru Kenyatta -- was overturned by the Supreme Court, which concluded Sept. 1 that the vote hadn’t been conducted in accordance with the constitution.

Uncertainty of the outcome of the presidential vote has clouded the outlook for East Africa’s biggest economy, where growth is already slowing. Kenya is the world’s largest shipper of black tea and a regional hub for companies including Google Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.